Take out pizza.Because the home-made lasagna I was promised for my belated birthday celebration with my family was made with cat mince.

(Menopause has not been kind to my mother.)

Oh no! I'm torn between deep sympathy and hysterical laughter. Please tell us how. There must be story behing that!

There's not really any story I know of. Mum promised to make me her lasagna, since its my favorite food, but 10 minutes after it had been put into the oven Geek-bro checked the fridge and found a packet of human mince defrosting, and an empty packet of cat mince on the bench. He checked the trash and couldn't find any other packets, did a smell-test of the mince pan and confirmed it did not smell like the mince mum cooks.Then dad decided to finish cooking the lasagna, so the pasta sheets would be soft enough to feed it to the cats, and ordered pizza instead.

I am making some lovely dinner rolls and the dough is rising now. For the main course I think I will make the simple salmon cakes (similar to crab cakes) that my mom used to make. A green salad will complete the meal. To drink: some Portuguese wine that I think of as very summery--Vinho Verde, green and lightly effervescent.

I made a vegetarian version of the Americanized Chinese beef and broccoli.

I looked up the dish online because we had these Gardein "Beef Tips" I wanted to use, and the standard sauce with real beef always seems to use oyster sauce. I made a pretty acceptable (better? we thought so) substitute with fresh garlic, soy sauce, balsamic and red wine vinegar, sesame oil, chili sauce, sesame seeds, a bit of honey and a little cornstarch to thicken. And I thought we had broccoli, but it was a frozen "broccoli Normandy" blend with cauliflower and carrots; loads of well-softened onion rounded out the dish, served atop brown rice.

Last night was a bowl of my homemade chicken and vegetable soup (thawed) and a slice of freshly baked Garden Bread (with vegetables). Umm!

Tonight, because today is my last day of unemployment before retirement--I am celebrating the start of a new job after more than a year of unemployment and I am thrilled to be going back--I plan to open a bottle of champagne and enjoy some crab cakes with a steamed artichoke, a green salad and perhaps a small key lime tart from Whole Foods. I think I will pick up some of the Prenzy ranch spices and buttermilk too because Ms_Cellany made her salad dressing sound oh-so-good!

Finally, tomorrow night I think I am going to try a variation of the Turkey Taco Lettuce Wraps found in my e-mail box this morning, but use my favorite Smart Ground, a soy ground beef product. I'll add steamed corn on the cob and a green salad to that.

Last night was pulled barbecue beef in the crock pot, with a side of coleslaw and pickles.

Since today is going to be the coolest day this week, I am going to make chicken pot pie soup. The weather here in Chicago is so erratic that it's going to be 20 degrees warmer tomorrow than it is today.

I envy you the weather there, cattlekid. I drove to LA to see Mom yesterday and it hit 102 degrees. I do not do well in heat so unfortunately, I didn't eat more than a few bites of my favorite shrimp soup at the Mexican restaurant. Neither did I eat dinner when I got home, still feeling ill. This morning I forced some breakfast down, and am hoping I feel good enough to eat dinner tonight: salmon cakes, green salad, ice-cold milk, and an ear of corn (the only hot thing planned).

To it is the pies I made last night, as I make the small pies four at a time. Chicken, ham and potato. I made the filling two weeks ago, them froze what I didn't use. Pies weren't like the first one I made, but were pretty good.